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Login > Main Menu > About CobornsDelivers.com
History
In August, 2008, Coborn's, a pioneer in Minnesota's grocery industry, acquired SimonDelivers', Minnesota's first and best Internet-based grocery delivery service to form CobornsDelivers.com. This is our story.
CobornsDelivers.com combines the retailing expertise of one of Minnesota's oldest and most respected grocery retailers with the entrepreneurial spirit of an Internet-based grocery company that refused to give up the idea that grocery shopping could be a heckuva lot more convenient — and waaay more fun.
SimonDelivers delivered its first grocery order in April, 1999, with the pledge "We deliver the store to your door!" The brainchild of a man named Simon Foster who was fed up with the inefficiencies of grocery stores, SimonDelivers.com harnessed the power of the Internet to bring over 10,000 grocery items to its customers' fingertips. Suddenly Twin Citians could get their grocery shopping done anywhere, anytime.
From its huge, state-of-the-art SuperStore in New Hope, Minnesota, SimonDelivers offered farm-fresh produce, restaurant-quality meats, fresh dairy and a full line of name brand grocery and household products — plus a hand-picked selection of wine, beer and spirits — direct to homes and businesses throughout the Twin Cities, all with a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee.
Meanwhile, just north of the Twin Cities…
Coborn's grocery stores were busy providing the Upper Midwest with fresh, top-quality groceries, tremendous value and exceptional customer service, just as they had for over 87 years.
Coborn's was born in 1921, when Chester Coborn opened a single produce market on Broadway Avenue in Sauk Rapids, Minnesota. The store grew and evolved as Chester added dry goods, meat and other merchandise, along with modern conveniences like shopping carts and checkout lanes. A true pioneer in the grocery industry, Coborn's was the first grocery retailer in the state of Minnesota to utilize scanners at its checkouts, starting in 1972.
Recognizing the potential for what, at the time, was termed a warehouse or discount grocery store, Coborn's opened its first Cash Wise Foods store in Willmar, Minnesota, in 1979. Today Coborn's, Inc., owns and operates 34 Coborn's and Cash Wise Foods grocery stores in the upper Midwest, along with convenience, liquor, video stores and pharmacies. Coborn's also operates a central bakery, central dry cleaning facility, central commissary, long term care pharmacy and its own grocery distribution center. The employee-owned company currently employs 6,000 workers in six states.
Coborn's attributes its remarkable success to four guiding principles: customer service, freshness, value and community involvement. In addition to recognition as Minnesota's 2008 Grocer of The Year, the company has earned a reputation for outstanding community caring, donating more than $2 million and thousands of volunteer hours each year to the communities it serves.
Better prices. Better selection. Bigger smiles.
When high gas prices and cutbacks in consumer spending forced SimonDelivers to close its doors in July, 2008, Coborn's, Inc., saw an opportunity to expand their business beyond the traditional store-based shopping model. "With rising gas and grocery prices, shoppers can save a lot of time and money shopping online at CobornsDelivers.com," said Coborn's president and CEO, Chris Coborn. "Our goal is to provide Twin Cities area customers with the best online grocery experience in the country. That means exceptional customer service, top quality groceries and lower prices."
To former SimonDelivers' customers, it meant bigger smiles.
About our SuperStore
CobornsDelivers, the Twin Cities' grocery delivery service, does not have a traditional retail store. Instead, we distribute groceries from a 190,000 sq. ft. SuperStore in New Hope. The SuperStore is like a gigantic warehouse, divided into 7 different temperature zones, including 4 separate coolers that keep different products at their optimum temperature to maintain freshness, plus a 20-degrees-below-zero freezer that keeps ice cream tasting as fresh as the day it was made. It takes a tough Minnesotan to work in there!
Processing your order
Each night, after our 11 p.m. ordering deadline, your totes begin to make their way through our SuperStore, and our hard-working team members work through the night to load your bags with packaged goods, dairy, meats and fresh produce, using a computerized tracking system and barcode scanners to ensure you get the right items in the right quantities. This process enables us to fill our orders at a 98+% accuracy rate.
JIT inventory for maximum freshness
CobornsDelivers' unique overnight operation allows us to utilize a Just-In-Time (JIT) inventory strategy to provide our customers with exceptionally fresh seafood. Shortly after our 11 p.m. ordering deadline, our JIT vendor, Morey's Seafood, receives their orders for tomorrow's deliveries. They fill the orders and deliver them to our SuperStore, "just in time" to get them on the trucks the next morning. You can't buy fresher seafood anywhere!
The close, vendor-direct relationships we also have with fresh produce and meat suppliers allow us to order in smaller quantities and more often, to keep our inventory of these items as fresh as can be!
Perishable items aside, our entire inventory turns over, on average, 25 times per year (that's twice as often as a traditional grocery store!) ensuring that our groceries are always fresher. Our fresh produce is never touched (or poked, squeezed, or sniffed) by other shoppers — only the person who inspects it and puts it in your bag.
Delivery
Our route-based delivery system is based on a hub-and-spoke model that allows us to service a geographic region covering 3,500 square miles within a 35-mile radius of our New Hope SuperStore. CobornsDelivers owns 60 bright yellow delivery trucks, which make 2 trips daily from our SuperStore, servicing 15-17 customers per trip.
About our award-winning website
Smart carts
Track your spending. Search for ingredients. Browse recipes. Get inspired then get it done. We even compile your previous shopping lists so you don't have to start from scratch next time. You can shop all at once, or shop throughout the week. Each time you log in your cart will be there waiting. You can see your total as you shop and add or remove items anytime to stay on budget.
Produce ratings
We taste, inspect and rate our fresh produce (Good, Better or Best) every day so you know what's really delicious. You can see all of today's "Best" produce with one click from our home page. It's like having an expert pick your produce for you.
Health indicators
Did you know that if you have special dietary needs you can choose to see only those items that fit your nutritional goals, such as Low Carb or Low Sodium? Try doing that in any other grocery store!
Easy Eats
Look for the little fork & spoon next to our products and click on them for recipe ideas! Or browse our Easy Eats section for hundreds of creative, simple recipes that use the season's freshest ingredients. Then put them all in your cart with one click.
Organic & All Natural
Our selection of organic & all-natural products is one of the healthiest around. If you know of a product you'd like us to carry, be sure to submit a Product Request Form.
Local Favorites
You like to shop local. We do too. So we ask our favorite local restaurants, bakeries, businesses and farms to bring us their best. Then we bring it to you.
The Side Dish blog
Recipes, reviews, inside scoops, untold stories, and general fun from your favorite Twin Cities grocery delivery service, CobornsDelivers. And it's easily accessible from our home page.
Our green story
We shop local so you don't have to
We ask our favorite local restaurants, bakeries, businesses and farms to bring us their best. Then we bring it to you. And talk about an errand saver! Pet food, wine, fresh bread, organic produce — at CobornsDelivers you can get all your errands done without driving all over town.
1 yellow truck serves 15–17 happy customers
Our yellow delivery trucks carry 15–17 orders each, which means that those 15–17 households or businesses are NOT making a trip to the grocery store that day. Since we've begun filling local cupboards, we estimate that we've saved the earth a net total of nearly 2 million gallons of gasoline.
Shorter distribution chain
Traditional grocery stores with dozens of locations use semi–trailer trucks to distribute their inventory, making frequent trips from a distribution center to each store to keep them all stocked with the same merchandise. While it's true that Coborn's grocery stores use semi-trailers, CobornsDelivers online grocery delivery service does not. We have one SuperStore which functions as a distribution center for the 3,500 square-mile area we service, eliminating the need for an awful lot of eighteen–wheelers.
One super SuperStore
There's no need for bright lights and fancy displays when low–energy lighting gets the job done and is actually better for the food.
We waste less food
Every grocery store has waste that needs to be discarded because of expiration, damage, etc. Because our online ordering and inventory tracking system allows us to move products in and out of our store more quickly, we only scrap about .6 of 1% of our inventory, versus the typical grocery store at 2–3%. That's a lot less wasted food.
Our totes are reusable (and recyclable)
Yes, they're plastic, but they are built to last and last they have. Our totes are used and reused every day, inspected each time they come into our facility for cleanliness and wear. When they finally give out we recycle them, diverting 5,000 lbs. of plastic out of landfills each year.
Our pallets are also reusable (and recyclable)
We use synthetic pallets, rather than wood to move large quantities of items around our SuperStore. Not only is synthetic safer for our employees, but you'd be surprised how many wooden pallets end up in landfills. Ours get recycled.
We don't use shrink wrap
If you've ever been in a warehouse you've probably seen those giant blocks of merchandise wrapped up with plastic being moved around on forklifts. Instead, we buy giant rubber bands to keep our pallet loads secure, which typically have a two year life span. There are no giant plastic balls leaving our facility for landfills.
We recycle our bags and cardboard
In fact, we recycle more than we throw away — a total of 200 tons in 2007. If you send your bags back in our totes, we'll recycle them for you!
Customer Reviews
We received these e-mails from former SimonDelivers' customers during our last year of operation:
I found out 2 weeks ago that I had an injury leaving me on crutches for 6 weeks (stress fracture in my hip from running). I knew my husband would about die if he was in charge of buying groceries so I decided to give the online thing a whirl. What made me take the plunge were the ratings on your produce. I'm one that likes to rummage through the fruit and vegetable bins because I'm picky and want the best. I read in your "comments" section a few people discussing the improved quality of your produce. They were right and so were the ratings. Even my skeptical husband was completely impressed. I plan to continue SimonDelivers.com even after I'm healed and back to running again. — Katie S.
My highlight of the year was sitting in an internet café last winter in Ko Sumi, Thailand, ordering my groceries to be delivered just as my plane was due to touch down in Minneapolis to insure some fresh food and minimal stress added to my re-entry back into reality. — Teresa
Ever tried to keep a grocery list current with two cooks and four boys (ages 4 and messy to insatiably 15 in 2 weeks) in one house? It's virtually impossible, unless you cover a kitchen wall with white board or post it on line. Hence my favorite thing: outsourced mother memory function. It's wonderful. Now I have neurons to spare for baseball schedules, music lessons, after — school volunteering and those less critical items like work, finances, etc., etc. — Ann Marie
We recently went on vacation for a week. It was great to know that groceries would be waiting when we got home! No more eating out after a week of vacation, we could stay home and make a great meal and relax! — Tawnia
Is it just me, or is the freshness of the produce improving? My last order, put the local grocery store to shame! The Romaine Lettuce looked like it had just been picked and placed directly into my box! No crushed leaves! Not one! The peppers were perfect and unblemished. No dimples or bruises. Just how many times do you suppose that the produce at the local market gets picked up and handled before I get there? How many kids have jammed their little hands into the pile of peppers? How many times has the employee had to restack the pile? In my mind, I can imagine the SimonDelivers Warehouse — one person reaches into the crate of Romaine Lettuce that just arrived direct from the grower — grabs mine out, bags it, and puts it in my box. One person. — Michelle
What is not to love! I have almost forgotten what a pain it is to push a cart over ice rutted or slushy parking lots, pack my groceries in the back of my car and fish them out again when they fell over in the back seat, haul them through the house with wet boots, leaving a trail all the way....hmmmm.....maybe I want to do that again....NOT! Of course, that's not mentioning how easy it is to shop: pull up my list, check the items I want, look at the specials and new items, then hit the purchase icon. Finished. My groceries show up the next day. All while I wear my fluffy pink slippers. I love that. Thanks. — Jean
My doctor recently put me on a low sodium diet. Simon absolutely ROCKS for finding foods that I can eat. I just click the low sodium icon and double check the nutrition information. It takes hours looking at labels in the grocery store to do the same thing. While I sit here enjoying my low sodium pop corn, and dreaming of tomorrow when I will treat myself to unsalted chips and low sodium salsa, I just wanted to say, "Thank you, SimonDelivers!" — Marie
See all customer reviews
News
SimonDelivers to reopen as CobornsDelivers, Aug 26, 2008, Press Release
Coborn's takes wheel from Simon, Aug 26, 2008, Minneapolis St Paul StarTribune
SimonDelivers to Return as CobornsDelivers, Aug 27, 2008 Progressive Grocer
SimonDelivers was featured on KARE11 TV. Watch the video.
SimonDelivers More, March 2008, Twin Cities Business Magazine
SimonDelivers to reopen as CobornsDelivers Aug 26, 2008, Press Release
Coborn's takes wheel from Simon Aug 26, 2008, Minneapolis St Paul StarTribune
SimonDelivers to Return as CobornsDelivers Aug 27, 2008 Progressive Grocer
SimonDelivers was featured on KARE11 TV. Watch the video.
SimonDelivers More, March 2008, Twin Cities Business Magazine
Press Release Archive
Employment opportunities
If you are currently looking for a position within our SuperStore Warehouse, you may contact Industrial Staffing at (612) 338-5421.
If you are looking for a position as a Delivery Driver or a Customer Service Representative, please e-mail your resume to employment@cobornsdelivers.com or fax to the attention of Human Resources at (763) 656-5668.
For general questions regarding employment at CobornsDelivers, call (763) 656-4900 and ask to speak to a Human Resources coordinator.
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